Amid Tijuana's violence, cultural pulse is vibrant

TIJUANA  On the night rival gangs engaged in a deadly gunfight five weeks ago, a Tijuana reggae group was making music across town, at a small bar in the city's Zona Norte.

Hours later, a Tijuana dance ensemble would perform at the city's Cultural Center, and writers would gather for a book presentation at a downtown cafe.

Even as a surge in violent crime has badly shaken Tijuana residents, the city's artists have pushed forward with concerts, festivals, book readings, art shows, and theater and dance performances. Their achievements reveal the vibrant side of this city of nearly 2 million people.

“People are continuing to work and showing that here there's more than shootouts and kidnappings,” said Karla Martinez, a literary agent. “Violence is not going to stop Tijuana's rhythm, and it's not going to stop the creativity of its artists.”

The grip of organized crime over Mexico's northern border has left few sectors of society untouched, and artists are no exception. They say their presence is a critical antidote for the ravages of crime, offering not only spiritual respite but also a vehicle for speaking out against the violence.

During the April weekend that saw a bloody battle among criminals that claimed at least 13 lives, the reggae group Cañamo was performing inside a bar on Callejon El Travieso.

“For me, Tijuana is super-inspiring,” said Osvaldo Julian, the group's 26-year-old leader. “In Tijuana, you see things that don't happen in the rest of Mexico.”

Later that day, a writer from the Yucatan presented his book of short stories at La Casa de las 9, a small, independent arts space. That evening, an audience of several hundred gathered at Tijuana's Cultural Center for a performance by the Tijuana-based Minerva Tapia Dance Company that was part of this year's Cuerpos en Transito, a weeklong showcase of dance.

This week, Mexican tenor Fernando de la Mora, who has performed top roles at the world's major opera houses, will be in Tijuana to sing the male lead in Donizetti's “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

“It's one more step for us,” said Armando Curiel, general manager of the Tijuana Opera, an eight-year-old group that has joined with the Tijuana Cultural Center and the federal Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City to produce the performances.

Other groups are moving forward as well. The Tijuana-based Nortec Collective, with its blend of norteño and techno sounds, is drawing international attention with its new release, “Tijuana Sound Machine.” In the visual arts, a rising number of painters have gained international attention. And a growing number of contemporary dance companies are making Tijuana their base.

“Tijuana is a city in movement, filled with energy,” said Henry Torres, artistic director of Lux Boreal, a nine-member dance company that has performed in New York City, Los Angeles and Latin America. Lux Boreal is lending its name to a Tijuana promotional campaign, but also hasn't flinched from exploring the region's issues: Its best-known work, “Flor de Siete Hojas,” explores the topic of drug trafficking.

“I don't know what's up with this city. Things keep happening to it and yet people maintain a certain optimism,” said Jaime Chaidez, a cultural commentator who for 15 years has hosted a weekly radio program focusing on the city's artistic events. “Artists are working as they always have. The difference that I'm seeing is that their themes are changing.”

A major institutional step forward expected this year is the opening of an $8.7 million exhibition space at the federally operated Cultural Center, known as El Cecut.

Dubbed El Cubo, the deep red, three-story, 50,000-square-foot structure will stand in contrast to the giant pastel ball that houses the facility's IMAX theater. El Cubo will meet the specifications to host major shows, including climate control, security and wall size.

“No other city in Mexico has such a strategic location,” said Teresa Vicenzio, El Cecut's director. “We have not only a border with the United States, but with the Pacific Rim.”

On the other side of the city, the state has set aside space for a future arts center aimed at reaching residents of the vast and fast-growing eastern neighborhoods. The Baja California Orchestra is planning to build a conservatory nearby. Not far away, the first phase of a children's museum is set to open before the end of the year.

Built in a corner of the city-operated Morelos Park, the museum for children – Museo del Trompo, or Museum of the Top – is a concave, red structure rising amid shopping centers and housing developments off Bulevar Insurgentes.

Trucks roared past on the Via Rapida, a nearby highway, as Rodolfo Pataky, the museum's executive director, walked through the unfinished space one recent afternoon. Though it has received government support, the private sector is spearheading the $20 million project. Pataky said the museum has reached about half of its funding goal.

The focus of the museum will be science and technology, reflecting the city's economic base as an industrial center.

“The idea of the museum is to create vocations,” Pataky said. “How do you create vocations in children so that they study engineering or computers or other technical areas?”

While large, publicly funded projects are moving forward, several smaller independent ventures have been struggling in recent months with diminished support, both public and private.

The 12-year-old cultural weekly Bitacora, which survives in part through government-paid publicity, has seen a significant decrease in funding from Tijuana's municipal government. Editor Alma Delia Martínez said private support also is drying up as business owners move their residences to San Diego County to avoid kidnappers.

“Those working in the arts and culture who are staying behind are being forced to improvise to survive on the little support that we are able to obtain,” said Martinez, who also runs a small arts space called La Escala in Tijuana's Mesa de Otay section.

In the well-to-do Tijuana neighborhood of La Cacho, Rodolfo Alvarez Leyva said he has been struggling to find funding for the projects he hosts at his independent arts center known as La Alborada.

“People's priorities have changed. They don't tell you directly, but it's clear,” said Alvarez, who has decided to cancel his yearly theater festival, Candileja, because he couldn't get enough backing.

But Alvarez, trained in theater, is persevering with his latest project, a play titled “I (heart) Tijuana.” The heart symbol in the project's title and logo is riddled with bullets, portraying “a city that has been fragmented, violated, in a certain manner, wounded,” he said.

Tijuana-born choreographer Minerva Tapia said she has no choice but to address crime through pieces such as “La Cobija” or “The Blanket,” which depicts encobijados, the name for homicide victims found wrapped in blankets.

“My work reflects what's happening in society, and it's impossible to avoid the violence,” Tapia said.

“Most artists are working on the theme of violence, even when they don't want to,” said Luis Ituarte, founding member of the Border Council of Arts and Culture, a binational group that is converting a house near the San Ysidro border fence into an arts center.